Cinnamon Success

I’ve been making cinnamon rolls for a long time, but never took them very seriously. I love the yeasted variety, but have never been patient enough to go through all the rising steps, especially considering I’m not a morning person and just will NOT get up early enough to make it happen.

Over the past year I’ve been keeping my eye out for recipes that allowed an overnight rising. I tried a few different recipes, but none were worth repeating. Finally last week when I was looking for something else (isn’t that always the case?) I found this one. The instructions are so detailed and the comments so many and so positive, I had to try them.

Basically dump everything in the mixer, knead, roll out, fill, roll up, rise, bake. They can be refrigerated overnight and even frozen before baking. Perfect for this night owl that isn’t keen on getting up hours before breakfast just for a cinnamon roll, no matter how good it might be.

I wasn't that particular about evening up the ends, so I ended up with a couple misshapen rolls. I loooove raw cinnamon rolls, and those are the ones I usually eat. But this time I refrained. (Probably the first time EVER I've done that.)

This week’s house guest isn’t a fan of raisins, and I was out of nuts, so I went with a simple brown sugar and cinnamon filling.

One of the tips in the recipe was to avoid crowding the rolls in the pan. I’ve always packed them pretty tightly. Maybe that was one reason (of many) they didn’t impress? Another step I've never done before is sift the brown sugar with the cinnamon. It takes a while because the sugar is dense, but it's worth the consistency you get in the end.

They went directly into the refrigerator – absolutely no counter top rising.

The next morning…

They didn’t look that much fatter, but they were almost touching. I put them in the oven for 20 minutes and proceeded to make a cream cheese frosting.

I was so excited to pour on the frosting that I forgot to photograph the beauty of them when they first came out of the oven. There were only three of us this weekend, so I should have made a half batch (a full recipe made 16 large rolls). But I didn't.

I’ve got lots of leftovers, and even four that didn’t fit in the pan that I have put in the freezer for another time.

This recipe is definitely going in my recipe box. One alteration I did make was the amount of butter I used on the rolled-out dough. The recipe called for ½ cup – I used ¼ cup, and it was plenty.

As usual, I would like to tweak the fillings to make it a little more my recipe. I’m thinking chai flavors with hazelnuts, for starters. But I’m going to have to wait for the next round of house guests before I’ll allow myself this carbfest again. We’ve got a nice guest room if anyone is interested.

Daring Bakers: Croquembouche

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

I was pretty confident going into this challenge, because in the past year I've made both pâte à choux and pastry cream, and ganache is something I can do in my sleep. The caramel is what had me hesitant. The few times I've tried it, I've either burned it or it's just not worked out somehow.

Well, this challenge just kind of fell apart for me. It tasted great -- what's not to like about cream puffs and chocolate? But my pâte à choux was sort of flat, and in an effort not to burn the caramel, I didn't cook it enough, and it was more like chewy corn syrup. But of course the entire thing was consumed within a 24-hour period. That's what I love about dessert -- you can mess it up, but when was the last time you had one that was inedible?


I guess these are called "challenges" for a reason ;-).

Comfort Food

I ate a lot of pancakes as a kid. For breakfast not only on weekends, but sometimes on school days. And even for dinner. Only we didn't get real butter or maple syrup. Mom used margarine and made her own syrup with sugar, water, and maple flavoring. Did she use Bisquick? I don't remember. I just remember pancakes.

I make them now for guests, rarely for myself. (Though recently I did find a low-glycemic-index version. Maybe I'll make that again soon and document it.)

These days it's all about finding THE recipe, adding it to my recipe box, and sticking to it. I'm tired of experimenting every single time. I want tried and true.

I think I've found it in this recipe, supposedly copied from IHOP. (Never having been to IHOP, I can't say how it compares.)

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 egg

• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk (I used 50/50 yogurt/milk)
  

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 cup cooking oil

• pinch of salt

I think we all know how to make pancakes, right?